Famine, affluence, and morality

What Hacker News says

1. ericrosedevMay 2025
   I find GiveWells approach the most satisfying when I ask myself “how can I make my charity go the furthest”. https://www.givewell.org/ I also highly recommend Famine, Affluence, and Morality by Peter Singer, it’s a perspective changing book. Also, great comment!
   thread
2. losername_Jun 2023
   I like Peter Singer's 1971 essay 'Famine, Affluence and Morality', when taken with a little Jung.
   thread
3. fasterikJun 2023
   Ethical theory is an interesting subject in its own right. Even if studying it doesn't make you a better person, that doesn't make it useless, any more than studying abstract areas of math or physics is useless.

   That being said, some work in practical ethics has had a huge impact. Peter Singer's work on animal ethics started the modern animal rights movement, and his essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" has inspired many people to donate a lot more to charity than they otherwise would.

   Show morethread
4. yborisJul 2022
   I came to the US from Russia at the age of 11; it probably helped me recognize how fortunate I was. Later, learning about the extreme poverty that exists in the world (far surpassing what I saw in Russia) I realized how much more fortunate I was to have had the luck of being born where I was.

   One way to conceptualize things is that you are a consciousness that has won the birth lottery - being born into a well-off family, or at least a family in a rich country. I don't believe in souls - this is just a way of thinking; a hypothetical to imagine, akin to "what if I was born a minority, or a member of some persecuted group". The realization that you could have been unlucky may help empathize with those less fortunate.

   Branko Milanovic, a world economist focusing on income (inequality) points out that 3 of the biggest contributors to one's income are (a) the country you are born into, (b) the income/wealth of the family you are born into, and (c) the gender. Note that all three are not something one can choose. So the "lottery" of life I describe isn't just metaphorical.

   I don't think I would be willing to give 10% of my income if I didn't learn about how cost-effective charity can be. For example, with a $0.50 donation to SCI a child will be provided an anti-worm pill - curing and preventing parasitic worm infections for about a year (see GiveWell to learn more).

   I recommend reading the short but super-influential essay "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" by Peter Singer. And after that, read some books by him too.

   https://www.givingwhatwecan.org/get-involved/videos-books-an...

   Show morethread
5. brudgersJun 2014
   You'll have to decide what you should do for yourself. If you are philosophically inclined I recommend looking at Famine, Affluence, and Morality by Peter Singer not because it is right or wrong but because it may help clarify your own thoughts by laying out a systematic approach to reasoning about the issue.

   http://www.utilitarianism.net/singer/by/1972----.htm

   Singer is arguably the 'greatest' philosopher of the last fifty years [1]. Agree with him or not, he has thought deeply about the issue and his reasoning around it and expressed these thoughts within a framework of rule based utilitarian philosophy.

   Singer's Ted talk on the subject:

   http://www.ted.com/talks/peter_singer_the_why_and_how_of_eff...

   Singer's homepage at Princeton, the link page includes links to most of his papers:

   http://www.princeton.edu/~psinger/

   [1] Not that I am interested in arguing. I only use the term to suggest that the list of candidates is not very long, at the moment. In fifty years who knows?

   Show morethread
6. yborisNov 2023
   Your first sentence betrays lack of familiarity with EA. It is offensive to me that you state it as fact.

   EA started as a continuation of Peter Singer's argument in "Famine, Affluence, and Morality" (1972), as a progression after the founding of Giving What We Can (thousands of people giving at least 10% of their pre-tax income to cost-effective charities).

   Have you ever read about it here? https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/introduction-to-e...

   Show morethread